Optical-light image producers such as, for example, microscopes generate the image results in two dimensions and without a time delay. It is a conventional procedure that the sensed images are converted into electronic signals for the purpose of additional analog or digital processing. In this context, an additional limitation in lateral and/or temporal terms occurs because of the limited transmission bandwidth. This limitation occurs in particular in the context of long transmission pathways (telemicroscopy) or low-bandwidth transmission channels.
The user has, in this context, the opportunity to choose between high lateral resolution and a high image frequency.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,596 discloses a telepathology system. A workstation is set up at a remote location and receives images from a preparation (tissue) that is being examined with a microscope. The microscope images are recorded with a conventional video camera, and displayed at the remote location on a conventional video monitor. A digitization or coding of the image data is accomplished after imaging. The system presented here is tied to analog transmission links, and cannot achieve the necessary resolution in a conventional digital network.
The system exhibits no capability for reducing corresponding resolutions so as thereby to allow adaptation to the presently available bandwidth.